Round or square slices made of mono or poly-cristalline semiconductor materials are used as a ground plate for electronic devices such as integrated circuits (ICs) or solar photovoltaic (PV) cells. At present silicon slices with a thickness less than 150 microns are used for manufacturing solar cells. They are cut from so called ingots (silicon block) using wire saws.

Thin-film wafers with a thickness of approx. 25 – 50 microns are produced by means of chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Research and development are working on ultra-thin flexible wafers made of amorphous or mircro-crystalline silicon with a thickness of 1 - 3 microns.